Want to buy a new iPad online? There's a wait for that

Days after the new
iPad
went up for presale online, Apple is running out of the devices to
deliver to Web customers on the brick-and-mortar launch day of March 16.

First-generation iPads lined up to go on sale in 2010.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

Apple today sold out of its initial batch of new iPads in online presales.
Buyers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia now face varying
delivery delays if they wish to pre-order the device from Apple's
online store. In the U.S. it's currently an extra three days' wait past
the brick-and-mortar launch date of March 16 to get your Web-ordered
iPad. Across most of Europe and Japan it's now a two to three week
delivery delay for new orders.
Apple's latest iPad went up for pre-ordering this past Wednesday, a few hours after being unveiled at Apple's event
in downtown San Francisco. U.S. carriers, including AT&T and
Verizon, are not currently letting people prepurchase the device online.
By comparison, last year's initial stock of the iPad 2 dried up
within hours of going up for presale. Orders for the iPad 2 kicked off
at 1 a.m. PT and quickly went from being delivered on launch day to
three to five days later, then to two to three weeks later. Availability
of the
tablet was later further constrained to up to three to four weeks for new buyers.

The new iPad faces a shipping delay of two to three weeks across most of Europe.

(Credit:
Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Despite the appearance of any supply constraints, Apple is set to
launch the device in an additional 26 countries by March 23, which the
company said represents its fastest product rollout ever.
Apple has a long history of setting aside launch day stock for its retail partners and for its own retail stores. At the
iPhone 4S
launch, for instance, the company's San Francisco flagship store got
through a line of several hundred first-day buyers with extra stock to
spare, despite online orders having sold out less than a day after going on sale.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment on unit availability.(Via The Next Web)